


I Was Here

by ShatteredAura



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Heavy Angst, How Do I Tag, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt Tony Stark, Please Don't Hate Me, Sad Ending, What-If, i hate thanos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-06-30 06:26:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15746109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShatteredAura/pseuds/ShatteredAura
Summary: “It’s too late, boy,” Thanos boomed, capturing the spiderling's attention.Peter brought the stone closer to his chest in defiance. “It’s never too late. As long as I’m still standing, I won't stop trying!”Thanos clenched his gauntlet-clad fist, charging it. “Then you shall fall, Spider.”And without hesitation, he fired.OR, the one where Peter stops Doctor Strange from giving Thanos the Time Stone.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first Avengers fanfic. I have spent months reading fanfics, and I have finally decided to write my own! My apologies if the characters are OOC, I'm still a bit iffy with this work. I also want to apologize if there is an idea like this that already exists, and I just haven't seen it! I promise my intention is not to copy anybody's work or steal anybody's ideas.
> 
> The idea came from re-watching the movie as it has come out on DVD. Both Peters were gone during the time Thanos stabbed Tony and Strange gave him the stone. Quill was most likely planning another attack somewhere or grieving Gamora, but what happened to Parker after he stopped everyone else from injuring themselves further? Where was he? My idea is: What if he snatched the stone from Strange to prevent him from giving it?
> 
> I wasn't planning to make this into more than a chapter, but I couldn't help it.
> 
> With that said, please give kudos and comments, but most importantly, enjoy!

Tony Stark quickly got desperate, which was something he didn’t like admitting. But, he had to face reality; half of the team was incapacitated, Strange was down, Peter was god knows where and Quill had disappeared, which left him as last line of defense against Thanos.

And they were losing. _He_ was losing.

His suit was running out of nanites while he was running out of hope. He had fought tooth and nail to even bruise the titan, and it had only resulted in a meager drop of blood. Realistically, he could never significantly hurt Thanos. That didn’t mean he couldn’t, or didn’t, try.

He knew it was over for him even before Thanos buried his own dagger in his stomach. His breath hitched in his throat, as if it left him through the wound, and he stumbled about, clutching the dagger with his shaking hands.

The mad titan slowly forced Tony to step backwards until the hero was left on his knees, gasping from his life threatening wound and looking anywhere but into Thanos’ eyes.

Thanos held the man’s head in his gigantic hand and triumphantly smirked. “You have my respect, Stark.” That caught Tony’s attention, as he now stared Thanos straight in the eye, a hint of terror in his own gaze. To him, having the titan’s respect was worse than having his mercy, something he wasn’t even sure he did have. “When I’m done, half of humanity will still be alive.”

The gravity of the situation fell down on Tony, pining him even more to the rocky ground. The blood-red sky was a stark contrast to the thick liquid trickling down his stab wound.

The titan gave Tony a small shove before standing up, towering over the shaking man. “I hope they remember you.”

Tony gasped, blood dribbling down his chin as he struggled to do anything but collapse. He had to...had to remain strong. For the others. For Earth.

Pepper. Oh, God. He couldn’t die. Not here. He had to see Pepper again. He had to shower her with love and affection and bring her on a date to the fanciest restaurant he could think of, just so he could see her smile again and kiss her lips.

Yet, when Thanos pointed the charging gauntlet at him, he accepted his fate. He knew he would die having done all he could to protect his planet and Pepper. He had finally repaid the debt he owed her for having stuck around by his side even when he treated her poorly, and having saved him countless times. He finally felt at peace at himself.

But as soon as the feeling washed over him, it left. “Stop,” a voice rasped in the distance, shattering Tony’s peace.

Thanos looked over at the origin of the voice, observing with keen eyes as the stone keeper weakly sat up with a groan. “Spare his life, and I will give you the stone,” the man vowed.

“No tricks,” Thanos demanded. When all Strange could do was shake his head, Thanos pointed the gauntlet toward him instead.

“D-Don’t,” Tony gasped out, huffing heavy breaths, instantly tasting copper in his mouth.

Unfortunately, his plea paid Strange no heed. The wizard summoned the Time Stone between two fingers dirty with dust and grime, and slowly guided it into the palm Thanos’ outstretched hand.

Tony could only watch the exchange, his heart skipping a beat as he felt their impending defeat looming over them. And then, suddenly, a cry of “No!” echoed around him, and the Time Stone disappeared in a blur of red and blue metal.

For a moment, all was silent to Tony Stark’s ears as his eyes tried to catch up to what had just happened. The titan kept his clenched fist by his side with a low hum coming from the gauntlet, also scanning the area in hopes of catching sight of the annoyance.

Thanos was the first to spot the spider-ling, perched on a rock between the two humans, tightly holding the Time Stone in the palm of his hand while visibly shaking. As soon as the boy noticed Thanos’ gaze on him, his back straightened up. “You can’t do this!”

“Are you insane, boy?” Strange retaliated before Thanos could utter a word, trying to summon the stone to him again with vain efforts. “Spare your life! Give him the stone!”

It had taken that time for Tony to catch up to the events, and a sense of horror had settled itself in the pit of his stomach. “Peter, no, he’ll kill you!” he pleaded with the stubborn teen, to no avail. He cursed under his breath as Peter clutched the powerful stone even tighter.

“I-I can’t! We can’t...we can’t let him win, sir!”

Tony shook his head again, gazing at his protege with pleading eyes, another wave of fresh blood dribbling down his chin. He coughed, ignoring the concerned look that was no doubt etched onto the boy’s face. “Peter, it’s too late,” he softly implored. “Just...give him the stone!”

But the boy held strong, anger rising with each heavy breath his mentor took. “Mr. Stark, he almost killed you! I can’t let him hurt anybody else! Not on my watch.”

The titan watched the exchange with much interest. Despite Stark being a threat to his plan, the little one proved to be quite strong and stubborn as well. He respected that. It seemed the two were close, even.

Sadly, it would be another loss added to the road to his final goal.

“It’s too late for that, boy,” Thanos finally boomed, capturing the spider-ling's attention as well as Stark’s. He could almost bathe in the anguish on Stark’s face as the man realized what he was about to do, but also realized he was powerless to stop it. With a dangerous gleam in his eyes, he added, “You are an idiot if you think you can stop me.”

Peter, oblivious to the look on his mentor’s face, brought the stone closer to his chest in defiance. The eyes of his suit narrowed as he glared at Thanos. “It’s never too late. As long as I’m still standing, I won't stop trying!”

Thanos clenched his gauntlet-clad fist, charging it. “Then you shall fall, Spider.”

And without hesitation, he fired.

At Tony.

Peter quickly realized he wasn’t the main target and threw himself in front of his mentor, dropping the stone. “MR. STARK!”

“Peter! NO!”

But both their cries were drowned out by the shot from the gauntlet.

There was a flash of light. Tony closed his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the comments and kudos and even bookmarks, you guys! Hopefully more of you will bookmark this story by the end of it despite what will happen to our beloved characters. ^^'
> 
> **IMPORTANT**
> 
> I do have a few warnings for this one.  
> WARNING: Coarse language.  
> WARNING: This chapter will be VERY out of character. I tried to keep the characters in character but through the grief, there is no telling what their reactions really would be. :') And because of that, there may seem like the characters will be crying a lot or all the time and it may seem like this are repetitive, but they are not, so PLEASE BE GENTLE lol.  
> WARNING: This is where the Character Death tag takes place. I advise you keep tissues nearby, because I may or may not have cried writing it. My philosophy (more like my excuse lol): no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. :D
> 
> Also, there is an apparent title change! Reason: I was listening to Dusk Till Dawn by Zayn ft Sia and I thought it would make a nice title, but after listening to I Was Here by Beyonce, I figured that would make a better title for the story (and perhaps sadder as well).
> 
> That's it! Please leave kudos and comments, but most importantly, enjoy this chapter!

_“Tony!”_

_The boy whipped around, cowering in the too-big, expensive, torn suit jacket._

_“There you are, you little shit,” Howard Stark snapped at his son, grabbing the jacket from the boy’s shoulders in one harsh motion. “What do you think you were doing with this, uh?”_

_The five year-old kept his eyes trained to his father’s shoes._

_**Slap.** “Look at me when I am talking to you, boy!” _

_Tony tore his teary gaze from the floor and brought it to meet his father’s furious one. “I-I, uh, I…”_

_“Speak up, you worthless bag of tears!”_

_“I-I jus’ wan-wanna b-be like you!” Tony wailed, hugging himself tightly._

_“And I want you to be better,” was the cold reply. The door to the boy’s bedroom slammed shut, leaving him in darkness._

Tony’s eyes snapped open and he slowly lowered his arm from his face, leaning on his other arm as he took in his surroundings.

He could faintly register Quill’s yell of rage and the sound of abused blasters firing round after round of shots before a quick flash blinded him. It took him less time to realize what was going on. With a quick scan of the area, he concluded that the Time Stone was no longer in their hands.

Thanos was gone.

His eyes landed on Quill as the man panted, dropping his blasters to the ground. “Did we just lose?” he asked without any answer being given.

Finally, Tony’s eyes settled onto the rest of the group, huddled around a bundle of dir–

No. That wasn’t dirt.

That was Peter.

In less than a blink of time, Tony found himself by his young protégé’s side, crouching down to inspect the boy’s condition.

He was lying still, way too still on the rough earth, his head tilted to the side. His eyes were shut, bluish lips slightly parted which offered an eerie contrast to the ashen tone of his skin. One that didn’t fit on the boy.

Tony felt his heart drop as he noticed a detail he shouldn’t have missed.

Peter’s chest wasn’t rising and falling.

“Stark?”

Tony’s hearing finally showed itself, broadcasting everything at once. He could hear Mantis’ soft hiccups as she cried for the selfless boy she had fought with. He could hear Quill pitifully murmuring things to himself to calm himself down. He could hear the mechanical whir of the blue woman as she blinked at the group, keeping her distance.

What he couldn’t hear was the sound of precious oxygen flowing through Peter’s nostrils in a barely perceivable hiss. He couldn’t, because it was non-existent.

“Peter,” his voice cut through the air as his hands grasped at the boy’s still chest. “Peter, wake up.”

Nothing.

“...Peter?”

Not a word, not a sound. No groggy, “Mr. Stark,” no groan, no moan, nothing.

He shook the boy’s body, and Peter’s head uselessly flopped. “Peter, please, wake up,” he begged, his own breathing getting quicker. How he wished he could give it all away just so Peter could breathe and open his eyes again. How he wished he could see those puppy dog eyes again. “C’mon, Underoos, time for a mission! You...you’ve always wanted to be on one, yeah? Y-Yeah…?”

But the boy didn’t stir. His lashes didn’t flutter like they normally would when he woke up from an unexpected nap in the lab. His cheeks didn’t flush like they would when he realized he had fallen asleep on one of his lab sessions with Tony Stark.

“Come-come on, son,” the billionaire whispered, shakily cupping Peter’s cheek. “Don’t you wanna hear me call you that? Don’t you want me to take a video and rub it in to your friend Ted that I’m your father figure? You thought I didn’t hear you complain to him about him calling me your dad, did you? Don’t you, don’t you wanna see his reaction? See him again?”

There was no shrug. No twinkle in the boy’s eyes. His lids remained closed shut, unmoving, just like the whole of him.

Tony hated that more than anything in the world.

“This is painful to watch,” he heard Strange whisper under his breath. “Stark, you have to let him go. He’s...he’s gone.”

Tony thought he had hated his father. He thought he had hated Howard Stark, Obadiah Stane, Thaddeus Ross, Bucky Barnes; the list could go on. He thought he had hated Steve Rogers for hiding the truth from him.

_“He is my friend.”_

_“So was I.”_

Nothing could compare to how much he hated how still his boy was. Nothing could compare to how much he hated Thanos. And now, nothing could compare to how much he hated Stephen Strange.

He slowly stood up, his gaze switching from pain-stricken to murderous as he directed it at Strange. “You.”

His mouth no longer dripped blood from his earlier wound. His voice dripped pure venom.

In one quick stride, he found himself face to face with the keeper of the Time Stone, glaring daggers at the man.

“You-you said you saw every future timeline,” he snapped. “You said we only wo-won in one.” He growled, scrunching his nose up while pointing at th–his kid’s still body. “Why did you not tell me about _him?_ ”

“I could not mess with our only victorious timeline,” Strange regretfully began, his stance not wavering despite the threat standing in front of him. “Even for hi–”

“How DARE you!” Tony thrust his pointed index right on Strange’s chest. “You cannot possibly understand what I have just lost!” He took a few steps back as it finally dawned on him, for good. “There-there is no timeline without the kid! There can’t be! W-We can’t win if he is dead!”

“Mantis, put him to sleep,” Quill muttered with a distraught look on his face. He had come to term with their loss as soon as he saw Thanos disappear in a flash, and while he still heavily mourned Gamora, even he could not understand how Stark felt.

However, Tony heard him, and angrily wheeled around to face the alien lady. “Don’t you dare put me to sleep, you bitch!”

Mantis did not know what a bitch was, but by the angry man’s tone, it could not mean anything nice. She cowered next to Quill with an uneasy feeling growing in the pit of her stomach.

“Don’t talk to her that way, asshole!” Drax shouted, his patience all but gone. He pushed the man, watching his stance waver before he unsteadily fell to the ground.

The group anxiously watched as Tony’s side hit the red dirt. but the man didn’t get back up. Quill pushed aside his own grief and anger to check on the man, whose head was bent down in shame. Tears streamed down his face, washing off the blood and grim. Droplets lazily made their path down his face to meet their demise on his dirty fingers.

The man of iron’s current condition unsettled the group, to say the least. Even Drax, who had calmed down by then, could not blame the man for his emotions, as he had experienced that level of grief when he had lost his family.

Finally, Strange broke the thick silence by crouching down next to the fallen man. “Stark, you have to get up,” he soothed. “We have to go back to Earth and get hel–”

“God, no,” Tony croaked, finally gazing into the wizard’s eyes. Strange noted how utterly broken Stark looked and was left speechless. “I can-I can’t face his aunt. Can’t tell her that...tell her that her nephew is gone forever.” Tony choked on a sob. “And I-I can’t leave him here.”

But before Strange could assure him he wouldn’t have to, Mantis stood straight, looking ahead with a gaunt look on her face. “Something’s happening,” she claimed. And before she could figure out what the thing was, she faded to dust under the horrified looks of her teammates.

Quill, who had been right by her side, backed away from where he stood, mouth agape. He quickly threw a sideways glance at Stark before checking on the rest of the team. To his horror, Drax began to fade away as well, muttering a confused, “Quill…?” before he too, was completely erased from existence.

It finally dawned on Tony what was happening. He swallowed his upcoming sobs and stood up on shaky limbs, ignoring Strange’s helping hand. His focus was completely on Quill, who stared back at him with terror in his eyes. “Steady, Quill,” he found himself telling the visibly panicking man, but he was too late.

“Oh man,” Quill moaned out before the wind could swallow his ashes whole, and he too disappeared.

Tony could slowly feel his breath accelerate as tears blurred his vision. They had lost. They had lost and now, half the universe was dying.

“Tony,” Strange softly spoke, catching the hyperventilating man’s attention. His gaze was somber, but he spoke with certainty. “There was no other way.” And then, before he could fully turn to ashes, he added, “I’m sorry.”

And Tony fell to his knees, trying to calm himself down, but the weight of the entire universe now rested on his shoulders, pushing him lower to the rocky ground.

He could barely hear the distant thunder through the red haze that was his mind. Without truly being conscious of his own actions, he weakly crawled toward Peter’s corpse, desperately clutching at the boy’s suit to ground him. He didn’t even care that the boy was forever gone; he needed to hold onto him for fear of losing him from sight.

And then, he felt unfamiliar hands on his chest, pulling him up, tugging him away from his boy, and he attempted to struggle and break free of the powerful grip, in vain. He watched through blurry eyes as the distance between himself and his body steadily grew, and he clawed at the hands grabbing him only to fall flat on his ass yet again.

_Peter...please..._

“...-ome, Stark…”

_I-I can’t..._

“...go home, come on, get u–...”

_Peter...where is Peter…?_

“...-ith us, now get up, Sta–...”

_Sleep...need, sleep…_

“...Don’t go to slee–...”

_Peter…_

“...Stark!...”

...oOo...

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Tony…? Oh god, please, wake up…”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Don’t you want to hear the good news…?”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“You have to wake up for that…”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Please, Tony...Please wake up…”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

...oOo...

Tony opened his eyes. There was a flash of light.

“Tony?”

The voice sounded distant, faint. His eyes hurt.

The light dimmed. He slowly cracked his eyelids open again.

He felt slightly better as the light no longer stabbed his retinas, but then he became aware of sound around him. There was an annoying beeping noise to his right.

“P-Pe-ter,” he croaked, his throat parched from dehydration.

Pepper Potts pursed her lips. “Here, have a drink,” she hushed, bring the cup of water closer to her fiancé’s dry lips. Thankfully, the man obeyed without much of a fuss, and soon, the cup was empty.

As soon as Tony had taken his last greedy gulp, he gasped out, “wh-where’s P-eter?”

A stubborn little tear made its way down the woman’s cheek. “I...I’m sorry, Tony, he–”

He didn’t want to hear it. He willed his head to face away from the woman. With enough effort, he managed to get his point across.

Pepper merely tucked his blanket more comfortably snug under his chin and delivered a chaste kiss to his forehead before she left the room, her heels clicking against the smooth tile of the hospital ward.

Tony merely closed his eyes, not wanting to deal with anything or anyone else.

...oOo...

“You’re awake.”

Helen Cho’s voice greeted him when he became aware of sound yet again. The light was already dimmed down to a comfortable level. There was no more beeping noise.

“S-So it seems,” he retorted.

The doctor slightly frowned. “You did a number on yourself. You were lucky you survived this time. Somehow, that blue woman brought you here fast enough.”

“Where is she n-now?”

A click of her tongue. “Gone. Left as soon as we knew you were going to live.”

Tony weakly chuckled. “Figures.” He quickly sobered up upon seeing the expression on her face. He hadn’t chosen to forget the snap. He had just dreaded to ask, “who survived?”

Cho hung her head. “Cap, Widow, Banner, Rhodes and Thor. King T’Challa is gone. We have yet to receive the current status of Wakanda. No word from Hill or Fury. We have assumed the worst.”

“Happy?”

“No idea. Nobody has seen him...since.”

Tony gulped. “Any news on May Parker?”

The doctor sighed. “She has been trying to contact you for days. However, we have not yet announced to the…world, that you are back or even alive. She appears to have give up on you, but demands answers on her nephew. She does not believe he is not...here. We thought it best to wait for your recovery.”

The man hesitated. “I can’t face her. Not now, not ever. I led her nephew to...to his death.” God, it hurt to admit. He didn’t think he could ever get past that. “I won’t be able to live with myself if I see her grief, knowing I put it there.”

“Very well, then,” Cho relented. “We will wait for the all clear before you make your final decision about Mrs. Parker. You need some rest.”

And he watched her walk out as well.

“JARVIS?”

“It’s FRIDAY, Sir.”

Tony remained silent.

...oOo...

“I don’t hate you,” she admitted, out of the blue.

May Parker had somehow found out he was back and recovering, having ignored her texts and calls. She was adamant on seeing him. She was stubborn, he would give her that much.

He had given Cho and Pepper the clear signal for her to walk into his hospital room. She had sat down by his side, not saying a word for the longest time.

And then, she had spoken. “I should." She bit her lip, avoiding his gaze. “Every atom in me says I should hate you for taking my nephew away from me. For letting him f-fly,” she choked, “to space of all goddamn places. But hate won’t bring Peter back. Nothing will, will there?”

Tony could have lied to her. He could have told her he would figure out how to undo the snap with the remains of the team and bring Peter Parker back to her. To _him_.

He couldn’t bring an already dead person back. The snap was not what had taken his life. Thanos himself was. And no matter how much Tony hated Thanos, he would never be able to use that hate to bring the teen back in his arms. He would never see him graduate. New York City would never see Spiderman save anybody else.

“You should,” he agreed instead. “I can’t bring him back. I-I, God May, I want to, so bad, I,” he choked on his own sobs. Stark men were made of iron, Howard had always said. They didn’t cry. They didn’t show weakness.

But he had forgotten that on Titan, and now, in May’s presence, he had forgotten that again.

“He would have died a lot sooner if it wouldn’t have been for you,” the woman whispered, tears streaming down her aging face. “You couldn’t have protected him forever.”

And it was that truth that completely broke Tony Stark.

...oOo...

When Tony was in better condition, they held a small funeral for Peter. Ned was gone, his life taken by Thanos’ snap, but Michelle Jones attended.

“I always knew you were too stubborn, Web-head,” the girl grounded, allowing a tear to slip past her eyelid, “but I never would have thought you wouldn’t be stubborn enough to come back to us.”

And she left to join her mother, the duo being alone after her father had faded to dust as well.

Pepper rested one hand on Tony’s shoulder and the other on her slowly growing stomach. “He would have been a great big brother.”

Tony couldn’t have agreed more.

Later, when him, Pepper and May sat in Stark’s penthouse kitchen, the latter asked, “What will you name your child?”

“If it’s a girl, we agreed on Maria,” Pepper began with a sad smile.

“And if it’s a boy…” Tony made sure May was staring at him as he announced, “we’ll name him, Benjamin.”

May smiled through the tears. “Peter would have loved that.”

...oOo...

A year and a half later, while May helped Virginia ‘Pepper’ Stark with little Benjamin, Tony, with the help of Captain Marvel and the rest of the team, managed to reverse the effects of the snap. People all over the world ran to their loved ones with tears in their eyes.

Tony shamelessly hugged Happy the second the man reappeared. He also offered a real internship to Ned Leeds after the boy grieved his best friend’s death. The teen, to honor his fallen hero, accepted. He was no longer Peter’s guy in the chair, but he was Tony’s and he would assume his new position until he would get to see Peter again.

The world mourned Spiderman. There were many tributes of the young hero on Youtube, shared through other social media websites.

May moved into the Compound when Tony gave her a job as a nurse there. She could no longer live in her tiny apartment and wanted to honor her husband and nephew by helping as many people, both regular and enhanced, as she could.

A new dawn rose in New York city.

Peter Parker was part of it in memory and in spirit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Sorry.
> 
> This is it, guys! Thank you so much for the support, it was very encouraging to know that this idea was indeed not taken before and that you guys enjoyed it!
> 
> If there is anything missing or that you would want me to write more detailed, I could perhaps make a series out of it! Like, Ned and Tony interactions, or maybe a message Peter would have left for Tony? For now, I have no future plans, but if you wish for one-shots related to before and after this fic happened, I'd be happy to write your requests! I'll have to ask that you be patient though, as I will be starting university quite soon and I work basically every day before that, so it wouldn't be so soon.
> 
> Also, I'm not gonna pretend like I know anything about Howard Stark's parenting, so I hope you can just bear with me for the first part, lol. And I am also not going to pretend that I know enough about Helen Cho to write her, so I hope you can bear with me for that part, too.
> 
> Thank you again, and until next time!!

**Author's Note:**

> This work is non-beta'ed, so pardon any mistakes and typos I may have made! Also, pardon the shitty quality that may be this work, seeing as I have had major Writer's Block for well over a year.
> 
> Also, sorry for the cliffhanger?


End file.
